Better "LA"te than never...... California here I come

In keeping with the tradition of the Dodger crowd, you know showing up in the third inning and leaving by the seventh. I thought this post would be appropriate to be oh about 2 weeks late. So hope you enjoy this post.

Okay this post is way over due, I guess better late than never. Jared my dad Ron and I went to LA the last weekend in June to see the Mariners play the Dodgers. Here are some of the highlights of the trip.
They went to the Hollywood walk of fame

What would a trip be without a picture of the Simpson's star.

The gathering of people here is at Michael Jackson's star. We were trying to get to the theater just past the crowd. It was crazy busy, since this was the day after he died. I wasn't as interested as seeing his star as I was trying to get to the Graumin's chinese theater to see star's handprints. Unfortunately, this didn't happen this day.

Jared wanted to give Spiderman high five. He didn't want his picture taken until Spidey said somehthing. I guess lucky for me it was a good thing he couln't break a $20, so I didn't have to pay him. It was just after this picture, that Jared wanted to look at the mounted police. It was a good thing the horses distracted him, since right after this, some drug addict decided to show her boob to everyone on the sidewalk. I guess this kind of stuff could only happen in Hollywood.

Here is a picture of Jared and I just outside the Disney Soda Fountain in Hollywood.

Later that night, we went to Downtown Disney, just outside Disneyland. This was the closest I was able to get to Disneyland. Heather told me if I went to Disneyland, I might as well stay California becuase I wouldn't have a place to come back to. She wasn't about to let Jared go to Disneyland before her. Not that I would have gone since we didn't have the time. It usually takes three or four days to cover disney and we only had an afternoon.

In this picture Jared is showing is balloon creations, a sword, his sheath and a helmet this guy was making at the restaurant.

Here is a picture of one of my mission companions we met with a banana tree and monkey. It was nice to see him again. I can't beleive it has been over 7 years since I have been off my mission.

Here is another picture at Downtown Disney. I decided to have Jared & my pictures drawn in chalk. The lady who did it was really good. Jared kept trying to add his own little interests to the sketch. She was very patient and at the end, let Jared draw his own. It definitely was worth the money

This is a picture of the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was not worth money we paid to tour it, but it was pretty cool. The best part was the Russian sub next to it. That was a better use of our money.

Here is Jared trying to look through the periscope on the sub. Not quite tall enough yet.

Jared and my dad standing slash sitting next to a torpedo. It took some convincing but we finally got Jared to sit on it.

Besides swimming at the hotel pool, I think this is the time that Jared had the most fun. He was able to find other kids his age and size to play with. He also was able to run around and play. My dad and just stood back and let him play. It was fun for him, so that made it worth while for us. The only bad part, was getting back to the car and trying to clean out the sand.

Here we are finally at Dodger stadium. It was so much fun to be here. I grew up a Dodger fan and always watned to come here as a kid. I remember watching the '88 World Series when Kirk Gibson could hardly even walk, yet he won the game with a walk off homerun. The only thing that could have been better is if my mother would have been able to attend Dodger Stadium with us. I am sure was there in spirit though. I bet she is still a huge baseball fan too.
Now that I am more of Mariners fan, what better way to spend your first trip to Dodger stadium than to watch the Mariners beat the Dodgers.

A picture of the game. We were in the second deck behind homeplate. We had pretty good seats and the Dodger dog was as good as I have always heard.

A picture of my dad, Jared and I at the stadium.

A picture of Jared in his Dodger t-shirt. I also bought him a hat, but he didn't want to wear. I kept calling him a traitor, but I still love him anyway.

Jared was so tired at the end of the game. I was suprised he lasted until we got in the car to finally fall asleep. He is persistant, but he finally succumbed once we got driving.Since we were not able to make it the Graumin Theater the first time, we decided to try again on Sunday. This time, the Michael Jackson tribute was not as heavy. So were were able to get in.

Here is a picture of my dad with his favorite actor of all time John Wayne. This is the only one that doesn't have hand print, in fact it is his fist instead.

Here is a shot of the Harry Potter kids. Can't wait for the sixth movie to come out on Blu-RayWhat trip to Hollywood would be complete without a smoggy picture of the Hollywood sign

We decided to stop at the La Brea tar pits too. This place is pretty cool. It stinks, but was fun for Jared. The only part that wasn't fun for all of us, was when Jared fell into mud. At least it wasn't tar, since mud is much easier to cleanup.

The first Jared kept saying he wanted to go back home and play with Taylor and Isaac. So when it was time to leave, he kept saying we needed go back to the hotel and swim and rest. He didn't want to come home.